Very perturbing. (Hey, there's a PD motto for you!)
What are we to make of this? Lewy Bodies show up there first, but against all common sense the neuronal density is doubled? And I still can't smell? So...
1) Could it be that the extra neurons are some sort of attempt to compensate or something?
2) Whatever it is, is there some way that the effect could be triggered in the SN? Or is it a genetic feature?
I'm never bored. -Rick
Quote:
Originally Posted by ZucchiniFlower
This is interesting. Too many dopaminergic cells in the olfactory bulb cause loss of smell....
Movement Disorders
RSS feed for Movement Disorders What is RSS?
Volume 19, Issue 6 , Pages 687 - 692
Published Online: 8 Jan 2004
Brief Report
A 100% increase of dopaminergic cells in the olfactory bulb may explain hyposmia in Parkinson's disease
Evelien Huisman, BSc 1 *, Harry B.M. Uylings, PhD 1 2, Piet V. Hoogland, MD, PhD 1 3
Abstract
Hyposmia is one of the most prevalent symptoms of Parkinson's disease. It may occur even before the motor symptoms start. To determine whether the olfactory dysfunctions, like the motor symptoms, are associated with a loss of dopamine, the number of dopaminergic cells in the olfactory bulb of Parkinson's disease patients was studied using tyrosine hydroxylase immunohistochemistry.
The quantitative analysis reveals that the total number of tyrosine hydroxylase-immunoreactive neurons in the olfactory bulb is twice as high in Parkinson patients compared to age and gender-matched controls. Because dopamine is known to inhibit olfactory transmission in the olfactory glomeruli, we suggest that the increase of dopaminergic neurons in the olfactory bulb is responsible for the hyposmia in Parkinson patients.
The increase of dopamine in the olfactory bulb explains why olfaction does not improve with levodopa therapy.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/c...9783/HTMLSTART
|